Festivity

Since it's the holiday season, I was reminded of our visit to Cana, where the very first miracle of Jesus was performed, to the prodding of her mother, Mary.

The pilgrim couples had the opportunity to renew their wedding vows at the church in Cana. I was even "Ninang" (sponsor) to a couple, assisting in the veil rites.

After the solemn renewal of vows (that proceeded like a mass wedding for there were about a dozen couples), we shared a taste of a grand wedding cake and some Cana wine. Cool!

I was imagining being one of the guests at the wedding in Cana, when the water was turned into wine.

I was also fortunate to have seen a huge stone jar where they used to keep stock of the water. Look!

Miracles, way back then were huge as well, blind that see, cripple that walk, lepers that were cleansed, the dead resurrected, walking on water, water to wine.

Nowadays, there are still huge miracles and healing, we just have to open our hearts to them. Let us keep on believing.

And if we are in dire need of one (miracle), we can ask the help of Mary, our mother, to ask Jesus to perform it for us just like what happened in Cana.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Come

Merry Christmas!!!

Come Emmanuel.

Sweet Red Antioxidants

While walking around Jerusalem, before we proceeded to Mount Tabor, we passed by some fruit stands. My eyes feasted on colorful round fruits of yellow, green and red.

Before boarding our bus, I saw a cart where man was working his magic on a pressing machine, squeezing the juice out from a red fruit.

We were informed that the bright-colored fruits are pomegranates. Out of curiosity, since people walking by were buying a glass of the juice, we bought some and kinda shared one glass of the juice. Wow, it tasted great! Sweet, with no added sugar. Must be super, if really cool when drank.

Just a thought, if I were a fruit with hundreds of seeds and was squeezed by the Lord, will my juice be sufficient and would it be sweet?

Wait, I remember some good antioxidants for the soul: Acts of Mercy.

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Pomegranates are drought-tolerant. They can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates.

The edible fruit is a berry and is between a lemon and a grapefruit in size, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded hexagonal shape, and has thick reddish skin and around 600 seeds.

Each seed has a surrounding water-laden pulp — the aril — ranging in color from white to deep red or purple. This aril is the edible part of the fruit. The seeds are embedded in a white, spongy, bitter pulp.

The juice from a pomegranate offers some of the worlds most powerful antioxidants. In fact, studies show that pomegranate juice has more antioxidants than other known antioxidant drinks such as red wine, green tea, blueberry juice, cranberry juice and orange juice.

Source: Wikipedia